Returning
by eleen
Summary: Ziva gets shot, Tony freezes, Gibbs gets the bad guy. How I could see Season 6 finishing . Tiva. One-shot.


**Disclaimer: I spent my waking hours in bed with 3 cats (one stuffed) giggling over Robert Pattison's interview with GQ. Evidently, nothing worth owning is mine aside from those 4 things. **

**A/N: Kind of how I could see the season ending. (Yay for grammar!) And, Aspen, stop reading my NCIS fics, you don't watch the show!**

Returning 

Even though they've placed themselves far from the glow of the streetlights, he know exactly where her lips are.

Gibbs and McGee are a few streets away and he and Ziva are standing on a beaten sidewalk. They'd wandered away, neither speaking. Tony isn't a hundred percent sure exactly sure where they are at the moment, only that they are alone and it is quiet. Not many people are out and about at four in the morning. Except them of course, disturbing the peace with gunfire and shouts of "federal agents!" among other things.

At some point he'd forced his black windbreaker around her shoulders. She'd protested against his original offer and threatened him for even thinking she was too frail for a Spring night in Washington. He must have forgotten he's in the company of his little assassin.

He'd waited one whole minute, then snuck it on her shoulders. She didn't kill him and he smiled as she just stared ahead like he hadn't done anything. He knew she was just quietly planning her revenge. Point 1 DiNozzo.

They really should have turned back then, taken a right instead of left and circled back to where McGee and Gibbs were doing something productive, undoubtedly. Instead they had foolishly crept farther and farther away like children testing boundaries.

"Do you have enough air yet, Tony?" She asked, referring to the poor excuse he'd used to escape Gibbs.

He didn't say anything. She frowned.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah."

"Really, because Gibbs said you froze." Ah, there's that revenge.

He wanted to say that _she _had been the one that had been frozen; on the ground, her arms clutching her chest. Instead, he said, "I don't freeze." Tony DiNozzo doesn't freeze.

He stopped walking, which didn't help his argument.

"There's a reason we have vests, Tony."

"Yeah…well…"

_You okay?_

_I just got shot at point-blank range, DiNozzo. What do you think?_

_You're not going to Pilates class tomorrow?_

"…Vests don't cover everything. I came around the corner and I saw you on the floor so, yeah, that kind of threw me off my game a little, you happy?"

"No, but, you did get on the game again. We got the guy. More correctly, Ducky has got him now."

"Thanks to Gibbs."

"Doesn't matter. We are all fine…"

"And the bad guy's got a one way ticket to six feet of dirt. Roll the credits." He spat, staring at some point to the right of her head, as if he could see the body bag being loaded into the truck.

"Oh, get over it!" She yelled. "So, you froze? Yes, that was bad. Yes, you could have gotten yourself killed - "

" – Thanks."

"Stop whining and just don't do it the next time."

"Next time don't get shot!"

"I did not get shot!"

"Ah, hello?" he raised both his hands to emphasize his point. "Bullet!" He shook one hand; "Ziva!" he shook the other then clapped them together in her face. "That constitutes as getting shot!"

"In the vest. As in Bullet! Vest!" She clapped her hands together, copying him.

"I didn't know it was the vest! I didn't know it was bullet meets vest instead of bullet shreds through Ziva!"

"So you froze?"

"Yes!"

"Why?"

"Because I thought you were dead, and that was a lot to process! So, I froze!"

"No, that's not why you froze!"

"Why did I then?

"I want you to say it!" She stepped further into his personal space.

"What?"

"You know what!"

"I think - "

"Say it!"

"I love you!"

Her eyes bulged, she couldn't hide her shock. The anger melted off her face.

"I love you, okay? There." He scowled and fought the urge to cringe away. Now he'd done it. A point for David.

Ziva's face was now frozen in an expression of confusion. At least he can claim he made her speechless.

"Well… say something!" Or she could punch him? He braced himself. Kill him? Why had he let himself be weaseled into this conversation on a dark, deserted street? No witnesses. Should he suggest they turn back and discussed this back at his place, or her place? Hopefully she wouldn't decide to kill him on the commute.

"Good."

"What?" He blanched. That's her response? A man only makes so many spontaneous love confessions in his time.

"Good," she repeated.

"Good?"

"Well, it is _good_ to know this is not one-sided."

"Oh."

Yeah, they should definitely find some place private. But a car had passed and the headlights had cast light onto her features for just a second. And for just a second, he could see exactly how much her brown eyes were looking at him in a way he never thought they would again. In a second, he was lost in their depths.

They were back into almost darkness and he could only now see the outline of her face. He knew she was moving slowly towards him and he towards her. They were so close together already his hand moved automatically closer to hers, their fingers lightly intertwining on their own accord. Their bodies moved together unconsciously, the space between them getting slowly smaller.

The sound of screeching tires causes them to both straighten.

As Tony spun around the van was already right in front of them. The side door slid open and clanged as it reached the end of the track it ran on causing the whole vehicle to shudder. Tony saw two men, their hands outreached, by the small amount of light emitted by the van. One grabbed Ziva by her closest arm, the other takes a hold around her waist.

For one wild moment he wondered if this is a normal, twisted Mossad ritual. Then he sees the look in her eyes and knows something is very, very not normal.

"Ziva!" he yells. The fingers they'd entwined together tear apart as she is ripped from him.

Her feet disappear behind the door and the driver hits the gas and floors it.

Tony freezes.

The van speeds down the street a couple of yards with expert precision and then takes the first left, runs a stop sign, and disappears.

He stares after it. Maybe for seconds, maybe minutes. Hours, it feels like.

Something catches his eye on the ground, he reaches down and finds his jacket. The one he carefully and deceitfully placed around her small shoulders.

It's still warm.

_Protection details over, Kate. _

_You did good. _

_For once, DiNozzo's right_.

* * *

**A/N: Please be nice! I know it's odd! Also, the italics are lines from the episode Twilight. **


End file.
